Usher's Passing

This book has everything, horror, adventure, a mystery, and a family dynamic that would make the tv show "The Succession" blush. It could easily have become a slog but Robert McCammon was able to finesse it in such a way that it never felt like too much.

Robert McCammon might be Horror's greatest secret. He has won the Bram Stoker award three times, was awarded The World Horror Convention Grand Master Award in 2008, and the World Fantasy Award once but I rarely see him discussed in horror circles. He is best known for his Post Apocalyptic novel Swan Song which has been compared to Stephen King's novel, The Stand, and which I found superior in many aspects.

In Usher's Passing we have a continuation of the story of the Usher Family from Poe's famous story The Fall of the House of Usher. This book tells the story of Hudson Usher and his descendants, the brother of Roderick Usher made famous in the Poe story. They moved to America to a grand estate outside of Ashville North Carolina and there became a weapons manufacturing empire.

The main part of the story starts when the family is called together due to the eminent passing of the current patriarch of the Usher clan, Whalen Usher. There are three siblings in the current generation of the Usher clan, Rix, a semi successful horror author, Boone, a dilatant horse breeder and talent agent, Kattrina, an international model with a previous drug problem. Rix is considered the black sheep pf the family because he did not get along with his father or his brother and left the estate to live in Atlanta.

This is a family in decline. All the Usher-born suffer from a form of disability where all their senses are increased to painful levels and all the members of the family have emergency rooms to go to when they suffer from an attack. It is interesting to note that none of the current generation had any children, so this was possibly the last generation of Ushers.

There is so much tension in this novel. In a less skillful hand the many subplots found in this story would have left a reader feeling overwhelmed. Add to that the jumping back and forth in time and this could have become a mess, but Mr. McCammon handled the various plots so well everything just flowed naturally.

I have been very impressed with the books I have read from this author and this book was no different. Usher's Passing gets all the stars.